In celebration of the annual Reno Air Races this weekend, I would like to postulate the "ultimate" Unlimited air racer. Suppose you have unlimited money and unlimted resources; what would your "ultimate" Reno Air Racer be? In the past, the races have been dominated by souped-up ex-WWII fighter craft, in particular the North American P-51 Mustang II. Other fighter aircraft have been able to give the vaunted Mustang a run for it's money (mostly Bearcats and Sea Furies with a big "corncob" R-4360 bolted to the front), but most of the races won in the past have been by highly-modified P-51 Mustangs. What if you could take ANY airframe manufactured post-1939, and marry it with ANY engine post-1939? What would your ultimate Racer look like? I would utilize possibly the most aerodynamically efficient airframe ever created for a two-engine aircraft, that of the German Dornier Do 335 "Pfeil", or "Arrow". The power of two engines with the drag penalty of only one (since they are arranged in a lateral configuration with a single fuselage). What to use for engines? Unfortunately, the Daimler-Benz DB 603 has been out of production for 65 years now, and there probably aren't any working examples left any more (and certainly not TWO of them), so what to use? Either a Rolls-Royce Merlin or Griffon engine SHOULD work (though they will be mounted upside-down in relation to the DB 605), and there are more of those left than DB 605's. So, the very efficient Do 335 airframe mated with two 3,000 HP Griffon engines should produce a top speed in the neighborhood of 500 MPH (900 kmh); I'd say that's enough to win the Races! Now, I just need a few million dollars . . . .
Remarkably like the SR-71 Black Bird......of course it can't corner for beans but it would be hell on the straight aways. In lieu of that I would opt for an A-4 Sky Hawk.
I have often wondered just what a top RR 'Griffon' in a P-51, P-38, Mosquito, Hornet,etc would be like. John.
Kinda like this... P-51 Mustang Survivors: " Precious Metal " , N6WJ - serial #: 44-88a Sights, Sounds, History.
If we are talking propeller-driven planes, a Mosquito with 2 Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprops (Kuznetsov NK-12 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) would do quite nicely. Four of them on the much larger and heavier TU-95 can propel it at over 900km/h. This route would also be the cheapest - wooden plane (although to ensure it holds up to the stresses, it would need re-enforcement) with Soviet technology. For jets, a SR-71 would be the obvious choice, but you would need to refuel it after takeoff, burning time and money. Maneuverability would be an issue, and you'd probably overshoot the turns and not figure it out until you are in the next county. I'd take either a Su-30 or Su-35 Flanker, a F-22 (assuming the DoD would give me one) or a Eurofighter. Anything bigger and faster (ie: interceptors, reconnaissance planes) would be too un-maneuverable to make the turns. No need to put a new engine into those, and that would save me some manual labor expenses.
McCoffee, Very interesting, I had not heard of it being done anywhere before, do you have any figures on its performance? Another day dream of mine is the matching of some of the Allison turbo props in top line WW2 aircraft such as the Mosquito/Hornet and P-38. Just imagine if the jets had not stumped progress in prop driven aircraft. I wonder where it would have ended. John.
I imagine it would have ended where it did, with the Lycoming R-7755, the largest piston aircraft engine. Developing 5,000HP @ 2600RPMs at takeoff and 4,000HP @ 2,300RPMs on cruise. Don't plan on staying airborne to long, the engine used 580 gallons of avgas per hour at 5,000RPM, and a wartime P-51D only had an internal fuel supply of 269 gallons. Lycoming XR-7755 - USA
Didn't find much on "Precious Metal" performance. It had a qualifying lap at Reno of 438mph in the 70's. The heavily modified F8F "Rare Bear" holds the world closed course speed record for piston engined aircraft at 528.3mph. Thats pretty much where it ends for prop driven aircraft. By default, the propeller is travelling faster than the aircraft. As the prop gets into the transsonic range, the rapid rise in drag imposes an upper limit on their performance.
Reno Unlimited class specifies "piston driven," so the bear is out. Reno Air Racing Association - Unlimited Class aircraft I want to see what a J7W1 could do.
Daryl Greenmeyer, the Bearcat owner and the guy that tried to fly that B-29 off a glacier in Iceland.... I saw some pictures of that. His theory was that he wouldn't have to land for fuel during the race. One shot has this huge four engined plane rounding a pylon with like two or three ex-fighter planes along side about 50 feet off the ground.... Anyway, I'd take on of the XP 72 airframes. With better technology and everything working right you could have pushed that plane to 575 mph wtihout too much trouble. 5 Stage turbosupercharger, and like over 3000 hp on a lightened P-47 airframe. The closest thing to a prop driven rocket there is.
